Okay, the first week of school Mrs. Henry, our English teacher, said we had to write poems in the style of some famous poet. And you had to write the poem to a particular person.

“It can be someone you admire,” Mrs. Henry said. “Someone you’re in love with, or even someone to whom you just want to send a message.”

The boys all treated the assignment like it was a big goof and most of the girls weren’t too excited about it, either. On the day the poems were read in class it was mostly funny stuff or poems about how they loved their mothers. Three people wrote poems about Martin Luther King, Jr. Half the class just listened to the poems and hoped they wouldn’t be called on to read theirs out loud. But when it was time for Kitty to read her poem, she said, “I’m going to read my poem to Mack.”

Everybody paid attention.

Mack leaned back in his seat and got this look on his face like he was too cool to breathe. Okay, Kitty went and stood right in front of Mack and started reciting her poem real slow. She was just glancing at the paper it was written on but most of the time she was looking dead into Mack’s eyes.

“How do I love thee, you sweet black thing

Why do I love thee, is this some fling

That my wildly beating heart has chanced

Upon or has my light and joyous soul danced

With yours in some other life or taken wing

And flown with yours, you sweet black thing”

The class was quiet and Mrs. Henry put her book down and sat behind her desk. Kitty went on with her poem.

“How do I love thee, my sweet black prince

For surely I have loved thee ever since

My eyes first met your fierce but tender gaze

And your gentle touch did expand my days

As poets’ songs fulfill the singing verse

And sweet love fulfills the universe.

“I haven’t finished it yet,” Kitty said. “It’s going to be a sonnet.”

She hadn’t finished the sonnet but she had finished Mack. From that minute on he was stupid in love. What she did was to flat-out change the brother. She had reached inside him and took out his attitude. Peewee put it best.

“What Mack was doing was dealing wrong but dealing so strong you couldn’t do nothing about it,” he said. “But how strong can you be when some girl can make you roll over and play dead any time she wants to? She can make that dude fetch like a cocker spaniel if she wanted.”

That was true, because Mack would be in the cafeteria or walking down the hallway and all of a sudden this silly grin would come over his face and either Kitty would be someplace near or he would be thinking about her. Mack was so much in love that it made people feel good just to be around him. He was talking about going right to the major leagues and playing pro ball while Kitty went to school.